How to Enable the Start Menu in Windows 8

byStrideronMarch 9, 2012

If you are an early adopter of Windows 8, then you might have noticed the radical change in the user interface, the all new StartScreen. Microsoft’s attempt to unify it’s flagship product for personal computers and mobile devices such as smartphones & tablets is certainly a wise move. But, but.. where is my Start Menu? For a Windows user the classical Start Menu is one of the most frequently used Windows feature. So here is a small tool to help you restore that good old Start Menu in Windows 8.

Before going further let me show you the new Start Screen of Windows 8. As you can see it uses the tile based design introduced in Windows Phone 7.

Clicking on the Desktop tile will open the classical Desktop. But the Start button is no longer there. To be honest it looks terrible for me!

Thanks to the guys at Stardock we have a free solution available now. This small utility is called Start8 and it can enable the Start Menu in Windows 8.Features

Adds a Start menu to the Windows 8 taskbar

Enables quick access and searching of your installed applications

Adds Run… option via right-click menu

Adds Shutdown… option via right-click menu

Choose a custom Start button image

System requirements

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Download& Installation

You can download this utility from here (just leave the email text box blank if you’re not interested in giving your email address). The installation is pretty straight forward. After finishing the installation wait for a few seconds and bingo! You have a Start Menu in Windows 8.

Clicking on the Start button will open the Start Menu.

The new Start Menu includes shortcuts to some of the Apps and a Search box like Windows 7. Give it a try; it proved to be reasonably stable in my tests.

Hiya, I am really glad I’ve found this information. Nowadays bloggers publish only about gossips and internet and this is actually frustrating. A good blog with interesting content, that’s what I need. Thank you for keeping this website, I’ll be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Can’t find it.